In the field of carpentry, the setting of nails in hard wood is sometimes difficult, as in the nailing of fir or other hard wood strips during construction or repair of a dwelling. The setting of nails entirely with a hammer is tedious and often leads to bent nails. Usually it is necessary to drill a small pilot hole in which to set the nail for pounding with a hammer.
The same difficulty is encountered when attempting to set the nail in other hard surfaces such as concrete. In addition, difficulty is encountered when attempting to place a nail near the edge of a board, as when installing stair risers, as the board is apt to split to the edge.
Some workers use tools in association with impact devices such as pneumatic hammers to drive the nail or other fastener into the hard surface. These tools commonly employ a movable plunger which impacts upon the head of the nail to drive it in the same fashion as a hammer. For example, see U.S. Pat. No. 2,839,754 to Pfaff and U.S. Pat. No. 2,472,353 to Sittert et al. As often as not, such an impact device and related equipment for use with such tools are not available to the worker due to the expense and the limited use thereof. The worker is more likely to have on hand smaller tools such as a rotary power drill.
Other devices provide means to simply hold the nail in proper alignment while a plunger is driven against the head of the nail by a hammer. See U.S. Pat. No. 3,060,440 to Pfaff et al, and U.S. Pat. No. 2,199,833 to Fleischman. Such devices still require the initial motive and manual power of the hammer to set the nail.